With everyone on board and thankfully, not panicking, Alistair could finally explain his plan to everyone. The main defense would be set up across the shorelines, but the first assault on the Church would already begin at sea. It was assumed that they intended to walk across the ice to reach Sunglow, so his first idea was to compromise the ice. Not enough to let ships sail through, but enough to make traversal more difficult.

This should give them more time to deal with the System users in small batches rather than all at once. Aeriganta and Leon were tasked with dealing with the ice. The mage would melt holes in the ice and later refreeze only the surface layer. It wouldn't be able to hold the weight of an adult, and while these places were noticeable if one looked closely, it would still make moving forward more difficult in a large group.

The regular citizens were put to the task of digging the beach to create sandy barriers. While it wasn't much of a defense, it could provide at least short-term protection against projectiles and make advancing more difficult. They would also serve a more nefarious purpose. To hide the many traps that would be hidden among the sand. The fact that the sand on the beach was still compacted and wet after the winter only made their task easier.

The pier and the streets closest to the beach would be littered with barricades—chairs, tables, sandbags, and whatever else people could find and were willing to use for defense. Anything and everything to provide defensive positions and slow Church's advance.

But Alistair was still nervous. As he walked from the beach to the pier to the town, it was obvious how little defense they actually had. Especially against System users. He would have to employ every nasty trick that he knew for this town to stand a chance. Stalling for time would be crucial as they had to wait for Sinclair forces to arrive.

With the message already sent to his father, Alistair did not doubt that the Duke was already mobilizing his forces. Perhaps, they were already on their way to Sunglow. But even so, it would take them at least two days to arrive if the wind at sea was favorable.

"I need to force them to expend their mana early on…" Alistair muttered to himself as he walked through the pier, watching the barricades being built near the smithy.

Etan the blacksmith was working harder than anyone, his shields and weapons being distributed left and right to those willing to take up arms among the populace. Most would be evacuated to special bunkers underneath the Town Hall and the Guild. But some brave men and women were willing to fight alongside the adventurers and guards.

The biggest advantage was currently the elves and the drow from the Monster Realm. Some were already trickling in and steadily joining in the defensive efforts. Elowen was the one in charge of directing them, sending them to join clusters of the defensive Alistair had made up.

He planned to have people work in small groups and constantly switch around, using larger numbers to tire out the enemy. Each group would consist mostly of civilians taking up arms, but would be led by an experienced adventurer or guard and joined by one of the elves or drow.

There would also be a few elite units, consisting fully of experienced fighters. One of their strongest units would also have Leon with them. Alistair couldn't believe that it had come to this, but he was their ace in the hole, besides Melina, of course. Leon was the only one who could do any sort of magic on his own without using Melina's pastries. Although apparently, she had already fed him more complex spells since he could hold them for longer.

"You think this is going to work?" Arianne asked, having walked up to him at some point.

"I don't know. I'm thinking of disruptive tactics just as we speak. My main concern is that there might be a lack of mutual communication among the fighters on our side since many of them have never even taken part in battle before," Alistair said.

"You're using your past life as a reference, right?" Arianne asked.

"That's right."

"Did you ever fight alongside elves and drow?" She prompted.

Alistair paused. "No. Now, when you mention it… It is quite different from an all-human unit."

He thought about all the times he fought together with elves while working as part of the Adventurers' Guild. They were faster, could see further, and hear better than humans. The same went for drow, who also had the additional advantage of being able to see in the dark.

"I think I see what you mean," he smiled, a new sort of plan forming in his mind. "Days are still very short, aren't they?"

"Indeed, they are, Lord Sinclair," Arianne nodded. "If we managed to hold the Church forces back for long enough for darkness to arrive, then we would be at a big advantage. The town is obviously familiar to everyone living in Sunglow, and drow aren't bothered by the dark. The Church, on the other hand…"

"They would be forced to fight blind in unknown locations. In the dark, we would be able to stall for even more time and wait for reinforcements to arrive," Alistair concluded.

"Exactly. Although our ability to resist them depends heavily on how many shields we can have. I imagine the spells and skills System users will be flinging cannot be resisted with grit alone. Not much one can do about an incoming fireball," Arianne said.

"Let's head to the Baking Hall. It's been a few hours. I believe Melina will have prepared the first batch of pastries," Alistair said.

After several work hours, Melina and her helpers had gone into a full work rhythm. Make a batch of dough, give it to Sienna to cook, prepare the next batch, by then the batch given to Sienna had turned into a nice fluffy sponge, which Mango would cool down. She made three such batches before leaving the rest of the dough making to Gilbert and went to the next step.

Making the various fillings. She decided to make four main kinds. For fire spells, she would use chocolate and scorchvine peppers. For lightning spells,

she would use buttercream and sparkleaves. For wind spells, she would use caramel and zephyr root, and finally, for the shield spells, she would use pastry cream and feyfruit jam.

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Adrien was responsible for the garnishes, which would be used to show the strength of the spell contained within. White chocolate buttons on fire spells. Black chocolate buttons on lightning spells. Caramel buttons for wind spells. The more buttons one cake had, the stronger the spells. Shield spells would get feyfruit glaze to further strengthen the effect.

The result was far better than Melina could have imagined. By adding the right Monster Realm ingredient to the right pastry, she had managed to strengthen the spells inside even further.

[Scorchvine chocolate petit four – Rank A]

[Delicious and spicy little dessert. It contains the spell <Fireball>. The scorchvine pepper contained within the pastry further strengthens the spell inside and reduces the mana cost.]

[Charges available: 5]

[Sparkleaf petit four – Rank A]

[Zappy and sour dessert which contains the spell <Lightning Bolt>. Sparkleaf contained within the pastry further strengthens the spell inside and reduces the mana cost.]

[Charges available: 5]

[Cloud petit four – Rank A]

[Airy and sweet dessert containing the spell <Cyclone>. Zephyr root contained within the pastry further strengthens the spell inside and reduces the mana cost.]

[Charges available: 5]

[Shimmer Petit Four – Rank A]

[Delightful and balanced dessert. It contains the <Shield> spell within it. Feyfruit further strengthens the spell inside and reduces the mana cost.]

[Charges available: 6]

Melina was surprised to see that the shimmer petit four contained more charges than other petit fours. She concluded that it was the side effect of feyfruit. The large amount of mana within it allowed the skill to add additional charge to the spellbound pastry. This was great news. Each person who ate it would be able to conjure six shields.

In the grand scheme of things, it didn't seem like much. In the middle of a battle, six shields could be expended in less than a minute. But if each citizen could have one of these, then it would quickly add up. Six thousand shields were certainly something the Church couldn't break through easily.

Because of that, Melina's hands never stopped moving. She didn't take a break, except for short moments when she allowed herself to sip some water. She ignored her hands when they felt like her muscles were seizing up from the strain. She ignored the throbbing headache, which slowly and surely grew stronger.

She also ignored any people who came into her kitchen. At one point, she noticed Alistair coming. She hurriedly explained how her spells were categorized within the petit fours and indicated which he could take and begin distributing among the people. But it was just a moment that she turned away from her task.

Hours went by in a blur. Gilbert and Roxie, at one point, tried to coax her into eating something and taking a short break. But she shook her head and kept cooking. This time, she would not compromise. Everything was at stake, so she wasn't going to let herself rest.

Once her mana ran out, she would drink a mana potion and keep going. Keep making one pastry after another, weaving spells within them. All too soon her mana would run dry again, so she drank another mana potion, then another and another.

The overflow of mana in her body was starting to take its toll. It wasn't flowing as easily anymore, and Melina knew that more mana potions would make her job even harder.

"Melina, you should rest for a bit," Gilbert said, concern written all over his expression. "You've been at this for six hours now."

Melina did take a short, ten-minute break to drink some water, eat a sandwich Adrien had prepared, and settle the mana flow within her. Now she could drink two more potions safely.

Once that was done, she got back to work. Her mind was wholly focused on it. She ignored everything else, with the exception of telling people which batches were safe to take and distribute. Erina appeared at some point, taking some of the prepared batches. Melina ignored the concerned expression on her face.

After the eighth mana potion, her mana flow was starting to go out of control. It was getting increasingly difficult to keep her from rampaging. She needed to spend more and more managing it, and it was irritating her to no end. There was no time for this. She had to make more pastries. More. More. More.

"Melina!" She suddenly felt herself being shaken.

"What?!" She exclaimed and noticed that it was Alistair. "I… I need to make… more."

"No, Melina. It's enough, you've done enough. Please, rest," he said.

She shook her head. "No. I can do more. I still have two mana potions left. I can make more. Heiliger will be here soon. I-I have to—"

Her head was heavy and sluggish. Her hands and feet hurt, and she could barely keep her eyes open.

"Melina, it's alright. You've made over 1500 petit fours. You've done enough. Rest," he said gently.

"Over 1500?" She blinked. Had she really made that many?

"Let go, dear. It's fine. Let me take care of the rest," he said, angling himself underneath Melina.

She let go, collapsing into his arms. The last thing she felt was him hauling her into his embrace and carrying her away. She fell asleep in less than a minute, too tired to remain awake.

"You pushed yourself too hard," Alistair huffed, holding Melina firmly in his embrace.

"Tell me about it. Watching her bustle about was exhausting," Gilbert huffed angrily.

"But thanks to her, all of the civilians joining the fray are equipped with a shield spell, and our fighters have fire and lightning and wind magic to aid them. It's actually a bit scary how powerful everyone is now," Arianne said, watching the sleeping baker.

She wasn't alone. Many of the people had come to see the baker, worried about her well-being. Whole Sunglow knew how hard she had pushed herself.

"Announce that everyone is to rest until morning. This is an order. We won't be able to do anything if we are tired. Only elves are to work in shifts to watch the enemy approach and warn us should they come earlier than expected," Alistair said.

"Will you sleep?" Arianne asked.

"At least a little…" Alistair said sheepishly. "I want to make sure she remains asleep."

"Yeah, don't let this girl wake up in the middle of the night and resume the baking," Gilbert said. "I don't think my old heart could handle that."

Sienna let out a determined chitter. The wyvern was clearly saying that she would not let her master get out of the bed before it was necessary.

"Thank you, Sienna!" Gilbert nodded.

"Are all the preparations ready?" Alistair asked Arianne.

"There are some things left to do. Drow are working on them. They are going to sleep closer to the morning. They will be more useful in the battle towards the evening anyway," Arianne said.

"Very well," Alistair said and looked towards the direction of the sea. His heart thundered in his heart.

This was the final showdown. The final battle. He would do everything he could to protect this town. He would do everything he could to protect Melina, so she would never have to work herself to the point of exhaustion ever again.